I'm a bit confused as to how you possibly think Jason could wind up lower than his finishing position last year, when his technical arsenal has grown and his PCS has not lost any of its shine. Granted he has been beaten by both Boyang and Ryuju this year, but on both occasions Jason was skating well below his best.

I'm a bit confused as to how you possibly think Jason could wind up lower than his finishing position last year, when his technical arsenal has grown and his PCS has not lost any of its shine. Granted he has been beaten by both Boyang and Ryuju this year, but on both occasions Jason was skating well below his best.

Hino has had a consistent 3A since Japanese Nationals, Brown doesnt
Jin has 3A and quads and if he lands everything wills core higher than Jason

I'm a bit confused as to how you possibly think Jason could wind up lower than his finishing position last year, when his technical arsenal has grown and his PCS has not lost any of its shine. Granted he has been beaten by both Boyang and Ryuju this year, but on both occasions Jason was skating well below his best.

There are realistically 6 men in contention for the title IMO: Farris, Brown, Hino, Jin, Omori, and Kolyada. Then maybe Uno or Samarin can medal but I don't think they have the tech to win. Nyugen and Zhang could be spoilers for the podium potentially. But among the first 6 I mentioned, results will likely come down to execution. Farris and Brown should have a PCS margin over the rest, but we saw this fall, at least with Brown, this margin is not so big that other skaters like Jin and Hino cannot overtake him if they deliver more technical content, and even for Farris, his FS at JGPF only scored 5 more points than Hino so he is not invincible either. Execution of content is likely to be most important, and Jin does have a pretty consistent 4t and 3a while Hino's 3a has been solid for seasons now while it is a new jump for Jason this season. Sure he is capable of landing it and landing it well, but in terms of who is more likely to land all 3 3a attempts at this competition - I think sky_fly is right in saying Hino and Jin. Of course, Brown may well be able to beat them both even if he does miss out on one/multiple attempts, it's just going to come down to other things.

AFAIK, Jin actually has the highest BV for the FS, where he plans two 4t and two 3a (one in the 2nd half), or at least that was his layout for the JGPF, idk if he or anyone else has changed his layout for the easier or harder since. If Brown skates cleanly with 3 3a, then certainly, one would expect his placement to be 1st or 2nd, but comparing results across years doesn't say much because Brown had 2 clean skates last year at JW (no 3a attempts but no mistakes either) while none of Jin, Omori, or Kolyada even competed and Hino, who has improved a lot in PCS this season, bombed the SP.

Didn't Yan dislocate his shoulder when he fell at 4CC? Perhaps he is not entirely healed yet, and Chinese Fed is waiting to make the decision regarding Worlds until he is, but in the meantime, no sense in having him compete now if he's still hurting. Also where Yan is a substitute for Worlds I think the Fed can still send him instead of Song if they want up until pretty much the day the skaters fly to London so basically, Song for Worlds is not a done deal.

Then I am also confused why he is not competing here. With Kovtun not competing, Yan would have been the heavy favorite for gold and a place on the podium he could probably manage in his sleep even. So idk. Perhaps the Fed does not think going to JW is a good use of Yan's time...

Then I am also confused why he is not competing here. With Kovtun not competing, Yan would have been the heavy favorite for gold and a place on the podium he could probably manage in his sleep even. So idk. Perhaps the Fed does not think going to JW is a good use of Yan's time...

I doubt he would have been "heavy favourite". He probably would have been equal favourite with Farris. Remember, he only beat Farris by half a point last year, and that was when Yan had a quad and Farris didn't.

Anyway, apparently the issue is that the Chinese fed still haven't decided who's going to Senior Worlds.

Ya, I think the most likely reason would be Han Yan has a great chance of being sent to the senior worlds, that junior worlds is considered a distraction for him.
However, if he were at the junior worlds, he will be favored due to his performance at recent 4cc, while Farris hasn't made an international senior debut yet.

Ya, I think the most likely reason would be Han Yan has a great chance of being sent to the senior worlds, that junior worlds is considered a distraction for him.
However, if he were at the junior worlds, he will be favored due to his performance at recent 4cc, while Farris hasn't made an international senior debut yet.

Exactly. I didn't mean that Yan is clearly better than Farris, just that he'd have momentum coming off of his bronze at 4CC, where he placed ahead of all the American competitors, two of whom placed ahead of Farris at US Nationals. If they were both to skate clean landing all there planned content, it would likely be a toss up over who would win. Add Kovtun in there and it would be even less clear cut. I wonder if those three will continue to be rivals so to speak in the future, they are all close in age and very evenly matched for the time being, which is nice to see because they've really helped bring the junior competitions to a new level, clearly, seeing how well they've all done the few occasions they have skated as seniors.

Piseev is the head of the Russian Figure Skating Federation.
It doesn't seem right that his wife is in a position to influence the outcome of this competition. As technical controller, she is the decision maker when there is a conflict between the Technical Specialist and the Assistant TS.

Shekhovtseva is not exactly a disinterested party....

ETA: btw, I would have no problem with Lakernik or Sanaya or any other Russian being Tech Controller. It's Mrs. Piseev I object to in this role.